Overview

Considering her transformation of material from the works of European writers and orators such as Rousseau, Mirabeau, Felicit de Genlis, Christian Gotthilf Salzmann and Margareta de Cambon, as well as British sentimental philosophers and the radical theologian Richard Price, this book argues that Wollstonecraft espouses a cosmopolitan ethic that subordinates local and national allegiances to philanthropy, or love of humankind. At a time of international conflict, burgeoning capitalism and colonial enterprise, she represents philanthropy and cultural authenticity as the means to resist tyranny and imperialism in all their forms and light the way to global justice.

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9781399503099

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Reviews

"This ground-breaking book argues for a ""cosmopolitan"" Wollstonecraft whose feminist and literary personas are shaped not only by her reading of Rousseau and by the French Revolution, but by intellectual engagement with translation projects that introduced her to Continental thought. Whether as progressive educator or Rousseauvian ""solitary walker,"" Wollstonecraft constructed herself as a gendered cosmopolitan subject committed to an ethic of caring and justice. Drawing on contemporary philosophers of cosmopolitanism such as Nussbaum and Appiah, Kirkley's detailed and authoritative account offers a substantially new understanding of Wollstonecraft's importance as a transnational feminist writer and thinker for her and our times. --Mary L. Jacobus, University of Cambridge and Cornell University"

This ground-breaking book argues for a ""cosmopolitan"" Wollstonecraft whose feminist and literary personas are shaped not only by her reading of Rousseau and by the French Revolution, but by intellectual engagement with translation projects that introduced her to Continental thought. Whether as progressive educator or Rousseauvian ""solitary walker,"" Wollstonecraft constructed herself as a gendered cosmopolitan subject committed to an ethic of caring and justice. Drawing on contemporary philosophers of cosmopolitanism such as Nussbaum and Appiah, Kirkley's detailed and authoritative account offers a substantially new understanding of Wollstonecraft's importance as a transnational feminist writer and thinker for her and our times. --Mary L. Jacobus, University of Cambridge and Cornell University

Author Information

Laura Kirkley, Lecturer in 18th Century Literature, Newcastle University.

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